How long has it been since your read your own book?

For me, it has been several years since I read it cover to cover....
I started reading Wooffer last night and found that it was a very nice book.  In fact, I loved my own writing. 
What about you?
Love,
Betty

I love your writing, too.

I have been rereading Redstone's Valley lately. Work on DD has been stalling, and I wanted to review the earlier story. Besides, I've had some new readers among some old friends I am back in touch with, and wanted to read it with that audience in mind. There are parts of it that I wonder, Did I write that? How did I come up with that idea? I cringe in a few places where I missed a typo. Overall, I like the way it came out. I think I managed to tell the story I wanted to tell.

Ann, I have always thought you were genius.  I am glad that you like your own story.  I do too.   Like you, I look back on my stories and wonder how I came up with those words for that story.  I believe we are possessed when we write the first draft.  It is when we revise that we qualify our original story and dumb it down to what we think other people will like.. I wonder if we, as authors, should have the perspective to see what we wrote in a neutral eye.  It is the author's vision that puts words onto paper. 
The reader sees another vision all together.  Love, Betty

Betty wrote:

The reader sees another vision all together

That's the acary part. Every reader comes with different past experiences which give them unique perspectives. Once we put the words out there, they no longer belong to us.

I wrote a long heart felt diatribe that vanished when I hit send.  Tomorrow is a new day.

I hate it when it does that.  

Great topic.  I read Ghost Orchid to prepare it for the new publisher, Vinspire.  I am making a few little corrections.  I still cry.

What I still find distressing is that two women copied the theme (that was totally original) of my Ghost Orchid and put it in a different surround - but still the same story - and published it as "Ghost Orchid."  What is even more interesting is that the former spouse of one of the two women sent me an email to apologize for his ex-wife's use of my plot - that she had similarly made life difficult for him (he lives overseas).  Isn't life strange?  Anyway, when you search on Ghost Orchid, the new one that steals my plot pops up first because it's new.  Thus she piggy-backs on my publicity.  Grrrrrr.

The previous ghost orchid stories had their own original plots far different than mine so I did not conflict with them.  Also, I was the only pure Ghost Orchid.  Theirs were The Ghost Orchid, Ghost Orchid, the Novel, etc.  Oh well.  Copying is the finest form of flattery?  Not really....

7/18/2014

                  I love " Dusty," that I wrote great story for children and animal lovers, my
                  2nd great choice is  " Clara Layten-The Chelsea Murders," which has a few
                  scatter brain scenes in it, I tried to duplicate again similar in " Murder On
                  Society Road.  "

                                                               Cheers..Joe.. 

DK, I think it is a good sign when you cry reading your own work.  I do, as well.  My children cry reading Wooffer, too.  They tell me it is all about heart when  you cry reading.  I believe them.  My proud moment this last year was when my great-grandson wrote several book reports for the Wooffer stories at his school. 
Joe, your Dusty is written with such heart and that is why it is a best seller for children.  I am proud of you.
Love,
Betty

Oh...how sweet the book reports.  I hope you saved them.

There are places I still cry, too.

Are we crying from our story or from the heart we put into the characters - that little bit of ourselves that permeates most writers' works?

I don't think there is any such thing as a totally happy story. If there were, it would be very boring.Sometines our characters go through tragic circumstances.

As different as they are, I think that you, Betty, and I are among the writers who get heavily involved with our characters. It's like they are real to us.

That's the truth!  My Ghost Orchid started with two characters, Mel and Jack.  Within the pages of the book, a new character, Mel's daughter, was born as an adult (the benefits of fiction).  She came from nowhere, unplanned, and became the heroine of the story!!!  The original heroine was Mel.  It was positively eery, just like the ghost orchid.

Since Ghost Orchid was published, the curve in the novel on the way to the swamp, a real curve, was made safer with guardrails and a turn lane.

The main partner of the publishing company for Ghost Orchid died and the corporation was dissolved, making Ghost Orchid an orphan novel.  The heroine, Neev, felt she was orphaned.
 
The ghost orchid has continued blooming and this year, when I am republishing with a new publisher, it has bloomed 15 blooms from 20 buds, another record July on my birthday.

One of the characters was a composite that included characteristics from my former spouse.  He died recently.

In the novel, Neev comments that all those she loved who were touched by the ghost orchid died, Jack, Roger, and her foster parents.  She held back a photograph of the ghost orchid that her son wanted - fearing for her son.

Yet, before the string of deaths, the ghost orchid provided the vehicle for redemption - and redemption represents change.

I may have to change the title for Daniel's Daughter.  I can't seem to keep Maggie as the main character.  The story wants to go in different directions.  She is still very important, but it is so much more than her story.

A new character has popped up.  I had planned for Johnny (aka JT) to remain a widower, but a new love interest for him keeps getting stronger.  Her name is Leslie.  I don't know why or where it came from.

Johnny and (Sheriff) Mack White from RV are old HS buddies.  There were at least two other members of their old  group, Leslie's brother and her first husband. Kind of like 4 musketeers.  The first husband was the only one not to go to Vietnam during the late 60's.  He became a banker.  Leslie's brother came back with severe PTSD, and eventually committed suicide.  Leslie is trying to run her family's farm, which is just east of the Double R.  She and JT(Johnny) team up to keep the ex-husband banker from taking over the two properties and turning them into "modern" technological agricultural conglomerates.  They will turn the old Rancho Pineda into a winery and lavender will become the main crop for Leslie's farm (lot's of lavender farms in the Hill Country.  It grows nicely near vinuards.)  Isabela's gardens have been taken over by Maggie, who will be instrumental in setting that sub-plot up in the 19th century time-warp.

Of course, if one hasn't read RV, none of what I just wrote will not make any sense at all.

Characters born in the pages of the novel make perfect sense.

7/20/2014

                 It's funny I've sat down and have re-read Dusty, what I finally realized              
                 that little boy I created Timmy was me, I put myself into that character
                 remembering as a young boy I would go around picking up stray cats and
                 bringing them home because I thought they needed a home..It amazes
                 me I did it this way? I guess it's the child in me that never grew up?

                                                         Cheers...Joe..